If you’re lucky enough have good local knowledge in Tahoe, he’ll know just the place for a couple days of backcountry fun for you and 15 of your closest ski buddies. That would be funky/rustic Lost Trail Lodge, a four-mile skin up the Cold Creek drainage just outside Truckee, Calif.

If your local knowledge—in this case, Tecnica Blizzard super rep Clem Smith—happens to have a killer carbonara recipe, handed down from the international product development director’s dear Italian nona, that’d be even better. (The secret: lots of nutmeg.)

Songwriter Fran Landesman must have been a skier: What else could explain her lyrics to "Spring Can Really Hang You Up The Most" but that snowless window between April and November? Sure, we endure the warm weather and clear skies all summer, but our hearts belong to winter and to our beloved ski hills. The only thing that makes our six-month separation bearable—especially this time of year—is the knowledge that when we finally get back on the slopes, they'll be better than we left them.

Come for the snow, stay for the sun. As many locals will agree, summers in Tahoe are just as beautiful and full of adventure as the winters inspiring many a seasonal resort worker to stay long after last chair. Just two hours east of Sacramento on Interstate 80, Tahoe's sunny days on the beach, adrenaline pumping bike rides and wild night life of the South Shore are just a few reasons why a trip to the lake should be on your vacation agenda this summer.